State Comptroller Susana Mendoza is calling for a public hearing on a proposed $67.5 million improvement to a state computer system after its rollout resulted in thousands of households temporarily losing their food stamp benefits last month.

If an amended contract for the additional work is approved next week, total payments to Deloitte, the company that built the system, would reach an estimated $288 million — more than double the amount agreed upon in the original contract in 2012, said Patrick Corcoran, policy director for Mendoza’s office.

Forrest Claypool’s cover-up of his top attorney’s ethics violation has cost him his $250,000-a-year job leading the country’s third largest school system.

But the cover-up also cost city taxpayers $120,000 to date, according to a review of legal bills and the damning 103-page internal report that led to Claypool’s recent ouster from the Chicago Public Schools.

Days after announcing her office couldn’t meet a statewide deadline to end paper filings in lawsuits and other civil cases, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown on Friday won a reprieve from the state’s highest court.

The Illinois Supreme Court didn’t directly address Brown’s request to push back the Jan. 1 deadline an entire year, to January 2019, but said her office could continue to use its current system until June 30. Brown’s office said on Friday afternoon it “greatly appreciates” the extension and that the June date is the new deadline for its transition to mandatory electronic filing.

The population at the Cook County Jail has fallen below 6,000 inmates, its lowest point in decades, sheriff’s officials said Thursday.

Cara Smith, chief policy officer for Sheriff Tom Dart, said the number has been declining for some time in part because of a drop in arrests, but the biggest change came some three months ago when criminal court judges were ordered to set bail only in amounts that defendants could afford to pay.

Each holiday, public works teams throughout McHenry County are put to the task of decorating for the holidays. Here is how much some municipalities are spending and what their process is for setting up lights.

Maine Township’s highway commissioner accused trustees of breaking the law this week when they voted against his proposed tax increase.

Highway Commissioner Walter Kazmierczak asked for a 2 percent increase Tuesday in the township’s road and bridge fund levy — arguing the extra money might be needed if winter weather is bad, asphalt prices go up or state lawmakers freeze property taxes. What’s more, he said, state law gives the highway commissioner control of setting the levy.